"Catherine seemed upset that you left so quickly." Tessa said as they walked into their hotel that evening and Richard shut the door behind them. He walked over to the bed and collapsed there.

"Emmett and I just ain't cut out to be in the same house." Richard replied. Tessa nodded. She had noticed the same thing. The two men were too tense and on edge around each other for either one to be happy or relaxed.

"Well you just stay right there and rest." Tessa said matter-of-factly. She pulled the bottle of pain medicine from the saddlebag and handed it to Richard who gladly took some.

"Doc Hawke said that you need to rest for a few days because of that blow to your head." she said. Richard nodded.

"Yeah yeah." he said. "Woman you sure are bossy. I've been knocked around harder than this before and hit the trail the same day."

"I've been bossy since you met me and you fell in love with me anyway so quit complaining about it now." she said.

"I never said there was anything wrong with you being bossy, I was just saying that you are is all." he replied.

"Well this bossy woman is going to go down to the diner before it gets too late and get us both something to eat." she said.

"Sounds good." Richard replied. When Tessa returned a short time later she found Richard sound asleep on the bed. She smiled and sat his soup down on the table for him to eat later. She ate her food, took a bath in the hot water she had brought up and then curled up against Richard and fell asleep.

888

A week passed before Richard was feeling more like his old self again. He would never tell Tessa but that blow to the head had come closer to killing him than the loss of blood from the gunshot. Truthfully the only thing that had gotten him up off the ground after getting hit was the thought of losing her.

They were lying in each others arms early one morning in their hotel room when Richard decided it was time again to talk about Trigger Jones. Neither one had mentioned him since coming to town.

"Well Tessa, guess we'll have to be hitting the trail again soon and looking for Trigger." he said while running his hands through her red hair. She sighed into his chest before raising up on her arm and looking at him.

"I don't want to chase Trigger anymore." she replied. Richard raised a brow.

"But I thought you wanted to kill him since he killed your pa? And you said you needed that five thousand dollars to keep your farm up." Tessa nodded.

"The farm will need work but I got a big strong man to help me now….. Don't I?" she asked. She had never really talked to him about whether or not he would give up bounty hunting to settle down on a farm. She worried that maybe he wouldn't want to and she knew they could never be together as long as he was riding trails chasing bounties.

"Yeah, I reckon you do." Richard replied kissing her gently. Tessa smiled and felt relief fill her. He was willing to settle down with her. "But what about your pa?" he asked.

"I miss my pa. I'm sad about what happened and yes I want to see Trigger pay for it but you were right when you said that killing Trigger won't bring pa back. I am not willing to lose you to a bullet just for revenge." she replied. Richard smoothed her hair away from her face.

"Are you sure you want to give up the chase? Cuz you know I'd ride beside you and fight with you till the end." he said. Tessa nodded.

"I'm sure." she replied. Richard narrowed his eyes.

"But that still leaves us with one problem." he said. "Trigger had his heart set on marrying you. What if he starts looking for you again?" Tessa shrugged.

"He won't a clue where to find me. He sure won't have any clue that I'm in Gatesville with you and besides he'll be looking for Tessa Bradshaw, not Tessa Helms." Richard's eyes widened as he looked at her.

"Tessa Helms?" he said. Tessa bit her lip. Okay so maybe she should have waited until after she was sure he wanted to marry her before she blurted that out. Oh well it was too late to take it back now.

"Sure. I mean you are going to marry me aren't you?" she said with much more confidence than what she was feeling.

"Damn you woman! You never even gave me a chance to ask you proper." he said angrily. Tessa rolled her eyes.

"Well I don't' feel like growing old and dying while you take your time getting around to it." she said. "Besides who says the man has to be the one to ask?"

"You saying that you're asking me to marry you?" Richard asked. Tessa nodded.

"Maybe I am. Is that a problem?" Richard shook his head.

"Guess not." he said. Tessa stared at him for several long moments but he didn't say anything else.

"Well…. Are ya gonna marry me?" Tessa asked. She could tell by the look in his eyes that he was and he was just making her wait to drive her crazy. When he just grinned instead of replying she stood up.

"All right then fine, I'm leaving." she said trying to get a rise out of him as she walked toward the door.

"Don't you think you oughta put some clothes on first, Tom?" Tessa looked down at herself and blushed. She had forgotten that she was naked. Richard laughed at the look on her face and patted the bed.

"Get back over here, woman." he said. Tessa smiled happily and jumped back into the bed. Richard wrapped his arms tight around her while he chuckled.

"Of course I'm going to marry you." he said. "You'll have to give me a few days to get the license."

"Days? I thought it took longer than that to get one?"

"Back east it does…. Out here things are simpler. And of course it doesn't hurt that I've made some friends in some pretty high places in my life. Just give me a couple days."

"I love you Richard." Tessa said. Richard just smiled and laid her down on the bed covering her with his body and kissing her senseless.

888

"I'm gonna go down to the post office and send a telegram back to my neighbor in Witchita Falls to check on the farm." Tessa said as she and Richard stepped out into the sunlight later that day.

"Alright. I'm gonna head down to the sheriffs office and see who they got to replace me." He bent down and kissed Tessa not caring who saw and then walked down the road.

He walked into the sheriffs office and was surprised to see the old man sitting behind the desk with a star pinned to his chest.

"Neil Hawkins?" Richard said as he walked in. Neil looked up from where he was looking at some papers on his desk and his eyes widened.

"Richard Helms? Is that you?" Neil asked rising to his feet slowly on his aching legs. Richard nodded and shook the mans hand.

"Of course it's you. Ain't nobody else in this world got scars like that and lived to talk about it." Neil said.

"Yeah it's me, Neil. I'm just as surprised to see you. How old are you now? Ninety? Ninety-five?" Neil laughed.

"I ain't a day over seventy you asshole." he said as he pulled a rolled cigarette from his pocket, struck a match and lit it. He took a long draw and then laid his wrinkled hand on the pistol on his side.

"So what are you here for? Come to get your job back?" Richard shook his head.

"Naw. I think I'll leave you to it." he replied. Neil took a draw of his cigarette and narrowed his eyes.

"Well why the hell would you want to do that for?" he demanded. "I'm plumb wore out and when I saw you walking in here I thought maybe you were my saving grace." Richard chuckled.

"I've been called a lot of things in my life, Neil, but never that." Neil sighed and walked back around his desk and sat down. Richard sat down as well in another chair against the wall.

"So what did you come back for?" Neil asked.

"I got shot. This was the closest place that had a doctor." Richard replied. Neil nodded.

"Doc told me there was somebody holed up over there at the hotel but he wouldn't tell me who it was."

"Sorry about that. I told him not to tell anybody who I was. When you've made as many enemies as me in your life the last thing you want spreading around is that you're busted up and laying in the bed."

"I understand that." Neil said taking a long draw off his cigarette. The two men sat and talked for a long while about the weather and the town. Richard stood up when he saw Tessa walk up to the door.

"Come on in here, honey." he said motioning for her. Tessa walked in and Neil's eyes widened as he stood up.

"Neil, this is Tessa. Tessa, this is Sheriff Neil Hawkins." Tessa looked at the old man and wondered how exactly he had gotten to be sheriff. His ancient legs looked ready to buckle at any moment. But she smiled warmly and shook his hand.

"Nice to meet you, sheriff." she said. Neil looked at this woman and knew instantly that if anybody could settle down Richard Helms it would be her. Neil had known Richard's first wife Sarah from the many times she'd come to Gatesville and sung in the saloon before meeting Richard and while Sarah had been a nice girl she had also been the definition of a spoiled lady and Neil had known that eventually Richard would have seen through her beauty and proper words and become bored with the woman he had chosen.

Then there had been Catherine and while she had been a step in the right direction Neil had always thought there was something off about the two of them together… Course that could have just been because Catherine hadn't loved Richard back.

But now this Tessa looked more like a woman made for Richard. She was wearing men's clothes that hugged her very nice body. She had a gun and a lasso on her side and plenty of long pretty red hair hanging out from under her hat. She had a small upturned nose, soft lips and she had big brown doe eyes but Neil could see the fire in them… Yep, this woman was definitely custom made for Richard.

"Nice to meet you too, Tessa." Neil said. "I was trying to talk Richard here into taking his old job back." Tessa looked up at Richard questioningly but Richard was shaking his head and looking at Neil.

"I done told you I don't want it." he said. Neil sat back down in his chair.

"Fine." he said with a bit of a pout. Richard looked down at Tessa.

"Ready to get something to eat?" he asked. Tessa nodded. "Alright Neil, we'll see ya around. Don't worry about getting up." Richard said as Neil braced his hands on his desk. "Wouldn't want your hip to snap old man."

"You just wait, Richard. You wont' be a young gun forever." Neil said with a chuckle as he gratefully relaxed back into his chair.

"Aw hell Neil, I'm thirty-two damn years old. Not exactly a young gun myself anymore."

"Richard, your fitter and more able than most of these new cowboys coming into town that are in their twenties. They wouldn't know how to put in a hard day of work or riding if you put a gun to their head and told em they had to."

"Thanks for the compliment, Neil." Richard said. "You hear that, honey? I'm fitter than most men in their twenties." he added with a suggestive smile to Tessa. Tessa blushed but wiggled her eyebrows up at him.

"Prove it." she said. Neil laughed loudly.

"Hell Richard, she's alright!" he said. Richard nodded and looked over at Neil.

"Yea I reckon I think so too." he said.

"Whenever you want to talk about taking your job back just come see me." Neil said. Richard shook his head.

"Actually I'm thinking about laying my guns down here pretty soon and trying my hand at farming."

"Farming? What the hell makes a tough as nails, gun slinging son of a bitch like you think that you'd ever be content sitting around plowing fields all day?" Neil demanded. Richard glared over at him.

"Well I'd love to stay and talk to you about it, Neil, but I gotta get this lady back to the hotel and prove to her just how fit I am. We'll see ya around." he said. Neil was laughing as they walked out the door.

Later that night as Richard lay sound asleep and snoring beside her, Tessa thought back to what Neil had said to Richard. She could tell by the look in Richard's eyes that he really had been interested in taking up his old job as sheriff again. She could remember the pride she'd heard in his voice on the trail whenever he'd talked about his old job and this town.

She wanted Richard to be happy and she wondered if he would really be happy back up in Witchita Falls working on a farm. Witchita falls was much more settled and tamed than the country around here. How would Richard even fit into that? Maybe it was wrong of her to just expect him to give up all of this for her. She thought about the farm back home. It wouldn't be the same without her father there. Tessa had set out on this quest with the sole purpose of avenging her father and then going back to her farm but now she wasn't so sure that the farm was what she wanted.

She curled up against Richards scarred back and wrapped her arm around him. She kissed his shoulder and he rolled over and pulled her into his arms. He kissed her hair and smiled sleepily.

"I gotta rest sometime, honey. Give me a few hours and then I'll be ready prove a few things to ya again." he said. Tessa smiled.

"You don't' have to prove nothing to me. I done know how great you are." she said.

"Good. Cuz I ain't sure I'm gonna be able to move again til morning." he replied matter-of-factly causing Tessa to laugh. "Get ya some sleep Tom." he said.

"I love you." Tessa said. Richard smiled and pulled her tighter against him.